Monday, 27 April 2015

Two Books / The History Of Gardening.

Gardeners will be astounded to discover how
little of their craft is new. Most of the methods used today hark back to ancient
civilizations and the gardens of Egypt,
Rome, and Persia. Illustrated with hundreds
of photographs and line drawings, An Illustrated History of Gardening is an
authoritative tome tracing the history and development of this centuries-old
craft. Grafting techniques, lawn care, propagation, irrigation, greenhousing,
and specialty gardening are some of the topics thoroughly discussed, and
illustrated, within this book. No less fascinating are the surveys of ideas
about composting from ancient times through the experiments in commercially
produced fertilizers carried out by early-American gardeners such as George
Washington and Benjamin Franklin to a discussion of the relative merits of
organic and chemical gardening. The gardener has always been a person of
imagination and adaptability, and An Illustrated History of Gardening shows how
this craft has survived for thousands of years.

"The Illustrated History of
Gardening" by the late Anthony Huxley captures elements of what gardening
must have been like in days long past, as well as a sense of more recent
changes in how and why we toil in the earth. Published in 1978 and re-released
with a foreword by Charles Elliott in 1998, the 352-page book provides unique
insight into methods of cultivation ranging from irrigation to weed control,
with a comprehensive look at the use of such tools and techniques throughout
history.

A formidable and vast subject, Huxley does
a good job of looking at a broad range of cultures and subjects, within the
context of the "history of gardening." However, since it was written
more than 20 years ago, Huxley also has managed to present his case from an era
gone by: from the 1970s, the days when population growth and gas shortages
necessitated smaller gardens and a renewed reliance on "community
plots" and vegetable gardens. But mostly the book is dedicated to the
evolution of gardening throughout history, and it remains interestingly
relevant to gardening today.

The book is half what it says: an
illustrated history. It is in fact a compilation of prose that addresses
certain technologies, such as the evolution of irrigation methods, then
contrasts them over a period of thousands of years. That in turn is
supplemented by a collection of photographs and art, compiled by Maurice
Michael and reprinted here in black and white.

From the plans for the St. Gall monastery
and its "physic garden," dated 820 A.D., to a London rooftop in the recent 20th century,
the use of art to explain antiquated methodology is particularly helpful. But
Huxley also relies on the work of his predecessors, noted writers who range
from Virgil to Emerson, to provide the background and sentiment of gardening
throughout the centuries. When the modern gardener may have tired of learning
about the latest trends and techniques, he or she will be fascinated to learn
that many fundamentals of gardening today date back to the ancient
civilizations and the gardens of Rome, Egypt and Persia.

According to Huxley, the earliest garden
cultivators were believed to have lived around Jericho
in Palestine in
8,000 B.C. Such history is interesting not only because Huxley jumps around
from century to century, but also because he compares a wide variety of
cultures (Roman, Greek, English, Dutch) in looking at the evolution of
gardening.

A chapter-by-chapter account leads the
reader through the evolution of techniques of lawn care, gardening under cover
and other topics, with a comprehensive look at essential operations and the
development of garden tools. It is obvious that Huxley looks upon these times
past with some longing. "In recalling primitive beginnings of cultivation,
one is reminded of man's constant instinctive urge to have plants around
him," Huxley writes. "Our gardens are echoes of the primeval green
world in which our ancestors lived and evolved, a world which we are all too busy destroying today."

In one of the many attributions featured in
this book, Sir Francis Bacon, more than three centuries ago, said gardening is
"the purest of human pleasures." He said it offered a
"refreshment to the spirits of man." But it is the craft of gardening
on which this book primarily focuses. "Gardeners are first of all
artisans, only secondarily artists," notes Huxley.

In the newly added foreword, Charles
Elliott explains that this historical volume "has less to do with theory
than with things." "An Illustrated History" deals with the
tools, techniques, devices, procedures and "all the paraphernalia that
gardeners have invented, improved, employed successfully or otherwise ... over
the centuries," Elliott explains.

The artwork featured spans decades - as
well as countries - but most date from the periods concerned. Many have not
been published in years. And only in a few cases does Huxley include
photographs or drawings of tools or devices that are still in use today.
"The illustrations are a very important part of this book, and much time
has been spent in searching for them," he explains.

Huxley also has made a point to use
original quotes–and their original spellings. A Providence, Rhode Island,
land grant dated 1681, for example, reads, "The northwestern Corner being
bounded with a pine Tree... the Northeasterne Corner Bounding with an old
Walnutt stumpe... the South Westerne Corner with a Chestnutt Tree." These
attributions, Huxley notes, "may seem quaint." But such honest use of
words is also refreshing and direct, and that's "all too seldom (seen)
today," he adds. In many cases, the origin of the quotes is also
historically significant.

While garden writers have penned their
words in abundance during the last few centuries, that wasn't always the case.
In some ancient civilizations, such writers were far and few between, or, like
the Romans Columella and Pliny, were "virtually unique," says Huxley.

In the course of his study, Huxley also
found it interesting that many cultures developed similar kinds of garden
implements about the same periods, without having any connection or at all
knowing what was happening in other parts of the world. He also felt it
interesting that certain techniques, first developed out of practical
necessity, later became full-fledged art forms in and of themselves. The basic
plant bed is one such example.

Originally designed as a way to prevent
stepping on plants, the technique developed into "pure design" and
later, with the aid of improvements such as irrigation, led to the evolution of
ornamental fountains, spouts, basins and more. Gardening as we know it has, of
course, long since moved beyond the basic necessity of growing food. Throughout
the years, people have been attracted to the earth and plants for reasons
relating to leisure, diversion and decoration.

While looking at the past, Huxley also
strives for modernity in his prose. In talking about ancient methods, he
compares them to modern developments and the use of such techniques today.
After all, he notes, "history only stopped yesterday." As with art,
he sparingly incorporates references to modern equipment, stressing that it is
in fact "the forgotten past which (most) fascinates."

Huxley died in 1992 at the age of 72. A member of Britain's intellectual aristocracy, he was
related to Darwin
supporter T.H. Huxley, zoologist Sir Julian Huxley, and novelist Aldous Huxley.
In 1949, he joined the staff of the weekly magazine, "Amateur
Gardening." After that, his list of accomplishments is quite extensive:
Throughout the years, he worked as editor, writer, lecturer, photographer, tour
leader and more. He wrote nearly 40 books on the topic of plants, and was
editor of the authoritative Royal Horticultural Society's "Dictionary of
Gardening - the Illustrated History."

Of Huxley's talent for the historic,
Elliott notes, "The combination of... pictures and Huxley's magpie taste
for the odd fact will fascinate anyone who has ever pruned a rose or hoed a row
of beans. Although there are plenty of bad or failed horticultural notions
included along the way, Huxley makes plain that there's no call for us to feel superior
to our predecessors."

Even the thoughtful gardener today, Elliott
adds, "might strike an idea or two worth trying again today, even though
it may be a couple of hundred–or thousand–years old. After all, we've still got
caterpillars, if not Arcadian asses." In the end, Huxley stresses that
gardening is a devotion which brings happiness to many. "Without green and
flowering plants for pleasure as much as food, the world would be a much poorer
place," he says.

The PleasureGarden:
An Illustrated History of British Gardening

Scott-James, Anne; Lancaster, Osbert
(illustrator)

From Roman peristyle to 20th century patio,
Anne Scott-James conducts us through 2000 years of the English garden; to
linger happily in simple enclosed courtyards of medieval days, and the formal
showpieces of Jacobean England, and, later, to wander through sweeping, moody
landscapes of the 18th century.

We learn of each age's distinguished
botanists, designers, and architects who, together with contemporary social
conditions and sheer fad and fashion, shaped these bowers of delight.

THE GARDEN OF EDEN

The Italian
Renaissance inspired a revolution in private gardening. Renaissance private
gardens were full of scenes from ancient mythology and other learned allusions.
Water during this time was especially symbolic: it was associated with
fertility and the abundance of nature.

The first
public gardens were built by the Spanish Crown in the 16th century, in Europe
and the Americas.

Garden à la
française

The Garden à la
française, or Baroque French gardens, in the tradition of André Le Nôtre.

The French
Classical garden style, or Garden à la française, climaxed during the reign of
Louis XIV of France
(1638–1715) and his head gardener of Gardens of Versailles, André Le Nôtre
(1613–1700). The inspiration for these gardens initially came from the Italian
Renaissance garden of the 14th and 15th centuries and ideas of French philosopher
René Descartes (1576–1650). At this time the French opened the garden up to
enormous proportions compared to their Italian predecessor. Their gardens
epitomize monarch and 'man' dominating and manipulating nature to show his
authority, wealth, and power.

Renée
Descartes, the founder of analytical geometry, believed that the natural world
was objectively measurable and that space is infinitely divisible. His belief
that "all movement is a straight line therefore space is a universal grid
of mathematical coordinates and everything can be located on its infinitely
extendable planes" gave us Cartesian mathematics. Through the classical
French gardens this coordinate system and philosophy is now given a physical
and visual representation.

This French
formal and axial garden style placed the house centrally on an enormous and
mainly flat property of land. A large central axis that gets narrower further
from the main house, forces the viewer's perspective to the horizon line,
making the property look even larger. The viewer is to see the property as a
cohesive whole but at the same time is unable to see all the components of the
garden. One is to be led through a logical progression or story and be
surprised by elements that aren’t visible until approached. There is an
allegorical story referring to the owner through statues and water features
which have mythological references. There are small, almost imperceptible grade
changes that help conceal the gardens surprises as well as elongate the gardens
views.

These grand
gardens have organized spaces meant to be elaborate stages for entertaining the
court and guests with plays, concerts and fireworks displays. The following
list of garden features were used:

The renaissance
style gardens at Chateau Villandry

Allée

Axis

Bosquet

Canal

Cul de sac

Fountains

Grottos with
rocaille

Orangerie

Parterre de
broderie

Patte d'oie
(Goose foot)

Tapis Vert

Topiary

MediterraneanGardens

Due to
being an early hub for Western society and being used for centuries,
Mediterranean soil was fragile, and one could think of the region’s landscape
culture to be a conflict between fruitfulness and frugality. The area consisted
largely of small-scale agricultural plots. Later, following World War II,
Mediterranean immigrants brought this agricultural style to Canada, where
fruit trees and vegetables in the backyard became common.

Anglo-Dutch
formal gardens

Picturesque
and English Landscape gardens

Forested
areas played a number of roles for the British in the Middle Ages, and one of
those roles was to produce game for the gentry. Lords of valuable land were
expected to provide a bounty of animals for hunting during royal visits.
Despite being in natural locations, forested manor homes could symbolize
status, wealth and power if they appeared to have all amenities. After the
Industrial Revolution, Britain’s
forest industry shrank until it no longer existed. In response, the Garden City
Movement brought urban planning into industrialized areas in the early 20th
century to offset negative industrial effects such as pollution.

There were
several traditions that influenced English gardening in the 18th century, the
first of which was to plant woods around homes. By the mid-17th century,
coppice planting became consistent and was considered visually and
aesthetically pleasing. Whereas forested areas were more useful for hunting
purposes in Britain
during the Middle Ages, 18th century patterns demonstrate a further deviation
in gardening approach from practicality toward design meant to please the
senses.

Likewise,
English pleasure grounds were influenced by medieval groves, some of which were
still in existence in 18th century Britain. This influence manifest in
the form of shrubbery, sometimes organized in mazes or maze-like formations.
And though also ancient, shredding became a common characteristic of these
early gardens, as the method enabled light to enter the understory. Shredding
was used to make garden groves, which ideally included an orchard with fruit
trees, fragrant herbs and flowers, and moss-covered pathways.

The
picturesque garden style emerged in England in the 18th century, one of
the growing currents of the larger Romantic movement. Garden designers like
William Kent and Capability Brown emulated the allegorical landscape paintings
of European artists, especially Claude Lorraine, Poussin and Salvator Rosa. The
manicured hills, lakes and trees dotted with allegorical temples were sculpted
into the land.

By the
1790s there was a reaction against these stereotypical compositions; a number
of thinkers began to promote the idea of picturesque gardens. The leader of the
movement was landscape theorist William Gilpin, an accomplished artist known
for his realistic depictions of Nature. He preferred the natural landscape over
the manicured and urged designers to respond to the topography of a given site.
He also noted that while classical beauty was associated with the smooth and
neat, picturesque beauty had a wilder, untamed quality. The picturesque style
also incorporated architectural follies—castles, Gothic ruins, rustic cottages—built
to add interest and depth to the landscape

Controversy
between the picturesque school and proponents of the more manicured garden
raged well into the 19th century. Landscape designer Humphrey Repton supported
Gilpin's ideas, particularly that of the garden harmonizing with surrounding
landforms. He was attacked in the press by two rival theorists, Richard Payne
Knight and Uvedale Price. Repton countered by highlighting the differences
between painting and landscape gardening. Unlike a painting, the viewer moves
through a garden, constantly shifting viewpoints.

The French
landscape garden, also called the jardin anglais or jardin pittoresque, was
influenced by contemporary English gardens. Rococo features like Turkish tents
and Chinese bridges are prevalent in French gardens in the 18th century. The
French Picturesque garden style falls into two categories: those that were
staged, almost like theatrical scenery, usually rustic and exotic, called
jardin anglo-chinois, and those filled with pastoral romance and bucolic
sentiment, influenced by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The former style is represented
by the Désert de Retz and Parc Monceau, the latter by the Moulin Jolie.

The
rusticity found in French Picturesque gardens is also derived from an admiration
of Dutch 17th century landscape painting and works of French 18th century
artists Claude-Henri Watelet, François Boucher and Hubert Robert.

English
gardens: the common name in the English speaking world, of interpretations,
derivations, and revivals in the style of the original LandscapeGarden
examples.

'Gardenesque'
gardens

The
'Gardenesque' style of English garden design evolved during the 1820s from
Humphry Repton's Picturesque or 'Mixed' style, largely under the impetus of J.
C. Loudon, who invented the term.

In a
Gardenesque plan, all the trees, shrubs and other plants are positioned and
managed in such a way that the character of each plant can be displayed to its
full potential. With the spread of botany as a suitable avocation for the
enlightened, the Gardenesque tended to emphasize botanical curiosities and a
collector's approach. New plant material that would have seemed bizarre and
alien in earlier gardening found settings: Pampas grass from Argentina and
Monkey-puzzle trees. Winding paths linked scattered plantings. The Gardenesque
approach involved the creation of small-scale landscapes, dotted with features
and vignettes, to promote beauty of detail, variety and mystery, sometimes to
the detriment of coherence. Artificial mounds helped to stage groupings of
shrubs, and island beds became prominent features.

The books
of William Robinson describing his own "wild" gardening at Gravetye
Manor in Sussex, and the sentimental picture of a rosy, idealized "cottage
garden" of the kind pictured by Kate Greenaway, which had scarcely existed
historically, both influenced the development of the mixed herbaceous borders
that were advocated by Gertrude Jekyll at Munstead Wood in Surrey from the
1890s. Her plantings, which mixed shrubs with perennial and annual plants and
bulbs in deep beds within more formal structures of terraces and stairs designed
by Edwin Lutyens, set the model for high-style, high-maintenance gardening
until the Second World War. Vita Sackville-West's garden at Sissinghurst
Castle, Kent is the most famous and influential garden of this last blossoming
of romantic style, publicized by the gardener's own gardening column in The
Observer. The trend continued in the gardening of Margery Fish at East Lambrook
Manor. In the last quarter of the 20th century, less structured Wildlife
gardening emphasized the ecological framework of similar gardens using native
plants. A leading proponent in the United States was the landscape
architect Jens Jensen. He designed city and regional parks, and private
estates, with a honed aesthetic of art and nature.

In the 20th
century, modern design for gardens became important as architects began to
design buildings and residences with an eye toward innovation and streamlining
the formal Beaux-Arts and derivative early revival styles, removing unnecessary
references and embellishment. Garden design, inspired by modern architecture,
naturally followed in the same philosophy of "form following function".
Thus concerning the many philosophies of plant maturity. In post-war United States
people's residences and domestic lives became more outdoor oriented, especially
in the western states as promoted by 'Sunset Magazine', with the backyard often
becoming an outdoor room.

Frank Lloyd
Wright demonstrated his interpretation for the modern garden by designing homes
in complete harmony with natural surroundings. Taliesin and Fallingwater are
both examples of careful placement of architecture in nature so the relationship
between the residence and surroundings become seamless. His son Lloyd Wright
trained in architecture and landscape architecture in the Olmsted Brothers
office, with his father, and with architect Irving Gill. He practiced an
innovative organic integration of structure and landscape in his works.

Subsequently
Garrett Eckbo, James Rose, and Dan Kiley - known as the "bad boys of
Harvard", met while studying traditional landscape architecture became
notable pioneers in the design of modern gardens. As Harvard embraced modern
design in their school of architecture, these designers wanted to interpret and
incorporate those new ideas in landscape design. They became interested in
developing functional space for outdoor living with designs echoing natural
surroundings. Modern gardens feature a fresh mix of curved and architectonic
designs and many include abstract art in geometrics and sculpture. Spaces are
defined with the thoughtful placement of trees and plantings. Thomas Church
work in California
was influential through his books and other publications. In Sonoma County, California
his 1948 Donnell garden's swimming Pool, kidney-shaped with an abstract
sculpture within it, became an icon of modern outdoor living.

In Mexico
Luis Barragán explored a synthesis of International style modernism with native
Mexican tradition. in private estates and residential development projects such
as Jardines del Pedregal (English: Rocky Gardens) and the San
Cristobal 'Los Clubes' Estates in Mexico City. In civic design the Torres de
Satélite are urban sculptures of substantial dimensions in Naucalpan, Mexico.
His house, studio, and gardens, built in 1948 in Mexico City, was
listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2004.

Roberto
Burle Marx is accredited with having introduced modernist landscape
architecture to Brazil.
He was known as a modern nature artist and a public urban space designer. He
was landscape architect (as well as a botanist, painter, print maker,
ecologist, naturalist, artist, and musician) who designed of parks and gardens
in Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and in the United
States in Florida. He worked with the architects Lúcio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer
on the landscape design for some of the prominent modernist government
buildings in Brazil's
capitol Brasília.